Since 2012, Britain has halved CO2 emissions from electricity

When I moved to the United States from Britain in 2006, solar panels were a relatively rare sight, wind turbines were largely solitary and on land, and offshore wind was something that the Danes were just experimenting with.

And while much more still needs to be done—and questions remain about current policy towards onshore wind and solar power in particular—this is an encouraging sign for the rest of the world that energy systems can rapidly decarbonize when countries put their minds to it. The other encouraging factor in this story is the fact that a decarbonizing electricity sector paves the way for much, much cleaner transportation once the electric vehicle market really starts to take off. And as reported late last year, even post-Brexit Britain is about to bet big on electric vehicles.